


imagine remembering basic survival skills can't relate

by Dawnpath



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Permadeath, Respawn Mechanics, Starvation, i do not know how to do tags i assure you, x died of starvation and i decided it was time to capitalize
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25989883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawnpath/pseuds/Dawnpath
Summary: It's easy to get too into a project, work for days in a row, forget to eat, and not notice any of this until it's a bit too late... and that's exactly what happens to Xisuma! Thankfully a friend is there to dive in and save the day - just a tad belatedly.A fic based off X accidentally dying of starvation recently! Don't worry, it's got a good ending and lots of fluff!
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 60
Kudos: 229





	imagine remembering basic survival skills can't relate

_Dust, dust, block, repeater, block, dust._

_Dust, dust, block, repeater, block... dust._

_Dust, dust, block, repeater... dust... block..._

Xisuma’s thoughts slowly ground to a halt as his mental march stumbled, tripped, and unceremoniously crashed, leaving the man squinting through his visor at a line of messily laid redstone dust that was _meant_ to power one row of a tiled sorting system. He was halfway through the project, or rather, this section of it, and groaned with a shake of his head as he remembered just how much work was still ahead of him. Just _how_ long had he been at this again? He couldn’t remember. He took a pause in thought, letting his head sit foggily empty for a moment, before repeating his question to himself more earnestly. _Wait, seriously, when WAS the last time I took a break?_

As self awareness returned to him, the sudden sensation of a heaviness in his head and arms washed over him, followed by a deep gnawing ache growing in his stomach. He grit his teeth with a light grimace. _Ah, jeez. This again. Xisuma, you have GOT to remember to eat during your projects._ Silently berating himself for his forgetfulness, he dug around in his pockets, fingers searching for the familiar grooved surface of his golden carrots. When he came up empty-handed he pulled a slight frown and turned to his inventory, glancing through his items somewhat haphazardly. His inventory was a disaster, slots filled at random with building materials and redstone components. He’d have to fix that later, he noted, but currently all it was doing was making his somewhat unfocused gaze work ever harder to find what it was looking for. Eventually, defeated, he shut his inventory with a huff, then turned to make his way over to his trio of shulker boxes lined up neatly against the far wall. 

Or, rather, he would have, if a sudden spell of dizziness didn’t nearly sweep him off his feet.

Xisuma barely caught himself on a ridge of detailing on the wall at his side as his vision swam. Vaguely he could tell he was swaying, still at a loss of balance, but he could scarcely focus on regaining a solid stance as a wave of abrupt nausea threatened to topple him over entirely. He stood there unsteadily for a long minute, eyes now squeezed tightly shut as he drew slow, deep breaths in and out, before finally managing to swallow his queasiness enough to feel capable of reaching his shulkers. He shoved off the wall and stumbled his way over to the containers, then dropped to his knees, messily shoving the lid up and off the closest to shuffle through its contents. Stone, blackstone brick, some cobble… and leaves? _What are leaves doing in_ — _nevermind. Organize later. Food now._ He moved on to the second box without closing the first, more frantically scrambling through it with a rising sense of urgency in his chest. Just wood. Nothing edible. The armoured man dragged the final shulker box into better reach recklessly, knocking its bright red lid off at the same time, but to his alarm found himself staring down at nothing but neatly organized redstone supplies. After a few seconds of stunned silence, the sudden realization that X was apparently completely without food hit him. 

_No, no_ — _surely_ — _surely I couldn’t have FORGOTTEN_ — _?_ He knocked over a stack of comparators to check under them with a swipe of one gloved hand, then toppled the repeaters right next to them, before dropping his head and allowing the upper ridge of his helmet to settle on the box’s rim.

_Shit._

In his dizzied state, X had already begun to panic. His heart was pounding and he could feel the urge to start hyperventilating creeping up on him, but before his rising alarm could get a hold he inhaled long and slow, trying to steel himself. Once he had inhaled as much as he could he held it and, ignoring how heavy his arms felt, lifted his hands to grip the edge of the shulker box tightly. _Not today, hunger. I can handle this just as well as any other situation._ The admin let himself rest just a moment longer before surging to his feet, exhaling all at once and shoving up off the box at the same time before allowing his initial stumble to carry him towards the room’s entrance. _Just up the stairs, up the elevator, and over to the storage tower. It’s as easy as that._ His staggering steps barely held him upright — as he struggled up the steps to his water elevator he nearly tripped twice, only narrowly catching the wall each time, and by the time he reached the very top step he was forced to pause and recollect himself whilst leaning heavily against the wall. His vision had begun to swim again halfway up the stairs and his nausea had grown so overwhelming he had to squeeze his eyes shut for the last three steps. He silently wondered if it would be worth it to just call a nearby hermit for assistance, but waved the thought off a few moments later with a frown. _No need for that. I’ll have this handled quickly enough._

Leaving his eyes closed and a hand planted firmly against the wall, Xisuma began moving forward again, attempting to breathe slowly in unison with his wobbly steps. He was about to metaphorically pat himself on the back for managing to get so far so successfully when the wall dipped away suddenly and he instead found himself tripping directly into a stream of water headfirst. The current, jetting straight upwards, sent the man tumbling rapidly head over heels towards the surface above, but the sudden tumultuous movement completely broke X’s delicate concentration on holding himself together. By the time he surfaced he could barely keep track of anything around him, the bubbling water bobbing him up and down and making his frantic attempts to scramble to solid ground ever more difficult. This very much included gravity — or, rather, his ability to compensate for it — and the moment he managed to drag himself from the water elevator he tipped over and landed hard on his side, immediately clutching one arm around his stomach and shakily fumbling with the edge of his helmet near his neck. One finger hit the helmet’s release, and despite the flashing warning popping up across his visor Xisuma threw the helmet off with a gasp. His more than unpleasant trip up to the landing bay of his experience farm had caused his nausea to spike, and the only thought in his head was that he simply had to hurl, this instant, overworld air be damned. He dragged himself a bit to his left until he could feel a cool wind rustle through his hair and over his face, and took his reprieve, retching until he could at the very least think properly again. This only made him realize that the entire process had properly left him out of breath, and, with a low groan, he threw an arm out behind himself and felt around until his hand hit the side of his helmet. 

At this point, Xisuma paused, grasping onto his helmet loosely and laid completely motionless on his stomach on his landing bay at _who knows_ what hour — alright, it was probably nighttime based off the fact that he couldn’t see any light coming through his closed eyelids — at _who knows_ how late at night, with an empty stomach and still no food within reach. He considered all this, and how utterly miserable he was feeling, and how opening his eyes even a little sent nausea washing over him again, but his stubbornness prevailed — he was _not_ calling another hermit and interrupting their work when he was just one short flight away from his storage system. _Who knows if anyone is even awake at this hour, anyways?_ Ignoring the fact that this was, in fact, the hermits, and barely any of them had any sort of sleep schedule to speak of whatsoever, X pulled himself up shakily on an elbow and dragged his helmet back to replace it on his head. It wasn’t too much longer before he had managed to get himself unsteadily back to his feet and was tottering over to the other side of the landing bay with his eyes squinted just enough to see. Or was it the edges of his vision going dark? _No matter_ — _just one short flight, X. Hardly needs more than one rocket._ He assured himself mentally, then reached up to adjust the straps of the elytra he had thankfully already had on. One less thing to hassle with.

About a minute later Xisuma realized he had zoned out teetering on the edge of the landing bay ledge, and shook his head to clear it and concentrate. This was, however, an incredibly poor choice of action — the sudden movement threw the admin completely off balance and, before he knew it, he had lurched off the ridge and was plummeting swiftly towards the jungle floor below. Through his haziness he hastily grabbed a rocket from his belt and activated it in hopes that sheer adrenaline and a smidge of luck would save him, but instead of sending him upwards as he had hoped, the projectile instead sent him careening off at a somewhat less sheer angle and towards one of his jungle pathways. Distantly, Xisuma felt his body slam into the path’s smooth stone surface, and he winced, but his head was swimming despite his eyes being closed this time and nausea had once again dominated the majority of his senses. He fought his weariness enough to open his eyes, but even his vision was failing him now. His visor was full of blaring warnings about his health, his hunger, and nearby mobs, but it all was drowned out by a ringing in his ears and he could barely make out what the warnings actually said anyways. He groaned, willing himself to get up, to make just one more flight, to use just _one_ more rocket, but it was no use — his body refused him. Soon, his consciousness did too, and despite him opening his mouth in some vain protest he slipped into darkness.

_ > Xisuma starved to death. _

Now, you see, it’s great that most methods of dying leave a person just a tad sore for a while, or, at worst, with a potential for scarring, but this unfortunately does not apply to dying of starvation. There’s a good reason that it is generally preferred, in situations that necessitate a self-inflicted death for whatever purpose, to go out quickly (say, by a skeleton’s arrow, or by taking a harried dive off the nearest cliff). However, other than the fact that a slow death is more painful and therefore generally less savory, a death that drags on and eats at a person has one primary drawback — it leaves the body so exhausted that respawning does little to assist healing.

Xisuma knew all this, of course, and yet as he found himself drifting back to consciousness laid on top of his bedsheets, with his vision slowly working its way back into half-focus, he was already lethargically attempting — with an emphasis on _attempting_ — to shove himself back up to sit. He only just barely managed to pull himself up on one elbow, and pried his eyes open enough to try to read through the various messages that had inevitably popped up in chat since his death message, but it was no use. All of it was far too blurry to make out, or trailing frustratingly off the edges of his vision. He instead pulled up his own chatbox, resting one shaky hand on the matching holographic keyboard that blinked into existence with it, to send his own reply. The _last_ thing he needed was to leave the other hermits without a response and cause them more concern.

_ > Xisuma: a;ll ggood _

_Ah, jeez. X, you’ve done it now._

Xisuma let out a heavy sigh at his shaky hand’s betrayal, debating with himself on whether it would be smart to try again, but the sound of a swiftly approaching rocket interrupted his thoughts and snapped him back to attention. Waving off both holograms and ignoring the three new messages that had popped up since his own, he started making an effort to swing his legs over the edge of the bed and turn his attention towards the sound. His first action barely merited any success, with just one leg sort of slipping off the side, and he could only blearily make out a white and orange figure getting larger as he turned his head and dialed down the transparency on his visor. He was about to call out and ask who exactly he was squinting at, but his question was answered before he even had a chance to speak.

“Oh, shish _WAM_ my!”

His neighbor skidded to a relatively ungraceful halt a few feet from Xisuma’s bed with a distressed tone, earning another, softer sigh from the malnourished man. “Keralis, my friend, I am quite alri-” he began, voice rough around the edges, before finding himself cut off.

“You starved to death! Shash _wammy_ , I _cannot_ believe you!” Keralis berated him lightly as he strode to his friend’s side and placed a hand on each of his shoulders to press him back into the sheets. “Down with you! Now! Tucky tucky!” The larger armoured man groaned but complied, recognizing already that there was no use in challenging the builder when he was this persistent.

“I assure you that I will be _just_ fine after a few carrots, Keralis.” Xisuma replied, pulling a weary smile and chuckling lightly. “If you would be so kind as to let me up to get them, that is.” Keralis scoffed at the idea, keeping his palms pressed firmly against X’s shoulder blades.

“Let you _up?_ _LOOK_ into my eyes, nothing but my eyes! _You_ are not going anywhere!” Keralis ended in a huff, before the tell-tale twinkle of an idea sprung into his eyes. “Ah… anywhere on your _own…_ ”

“Keralis, I do _not_ need assistance in getting up.” Xisuma was already moving to sit up again, but to no avail - his arms were still heavy, and his dizziness was returning with the effort he was expending in trying to fight his companion’s insistence. A few seconds more and he was forced to fall limp again, closing his eyes with a knit brow and a quiet groan. Behind Keralis’s signature wide gaze, however, a plan was already brewing, and before X could get ahold of himself again he found himself suddenly lifted halfway to sitting as Keralis started trying to hoist him up from under his armpits. “Oh my—” He barely cut off his own surprised exclamation as Keralis began giggling, then dropped him unceremoniously back onto the bed.

“Ah, hm… you would think you couldn’t die of hunger when you are like _this,_ shishwammy, hm? …Or perhaps it is your armour?” Keralis’s mischievous tone was impossible to miss, especially when his lilting snickering continued, but Xisuma rolled his eyes regardless — though not without another chuckle, of course.

“Have you been convinced to let me get up of my own accord, now?” Xisuma’s tone was revealingly hopeful.

“ _Ab_ solutely not!”

“Ah.” A silence fell between them as the conversation lulled. Xisuma was waiting for Keralis to admit defeat. Keralis, however, had other plans. Three, to be exact, but he expected his first would be plenty enough. Xisuma raised his brows in surprise as he heard steps receding from his bedside again, back towards the hangar that the builder had entered from. “ _Thank_ you, my fri—” 

“Not so quick, Shishwam! Look into my eyes, _nothing_ but my eyes—” Keralis cut off, stopping at the edge of the landing bay and turning back with his hands on his hips and one brow raised in as stern of an expression as he could muster. X waited a few seconds for him to finish his sentence before pulling his eyes halfway open again and tilting his head back to return the stare tiredly. Apparently pleased, Keralis continued firmly. “Do _not_ move an itty bitty inchy until I am back! Don’t make me say it again — _look_ into my eyes, nothing but my eyes, do you hear me?” This earned Keralis a heavy, loud sigh in response, but when he hesitated at the hangar entrance for a few moments and saw X simply go still in his bed he nodded to himself with a wide grin, leapt off the ledge backwards, and fired a rocket off towards the glimmering cityscape in the distance.

Xisuma, in the meantime, let his eyes fall shut again and debated his options. There was nothing in the world that he wanted more at this moment than to push himself up, grab something to soothe the ache returning to torment his stomach, and shoo Keralis back off to his own projects whenever he returned, but the way that even just lifting his chin to look at his friend nearly made him have to take another break to be sick gave him the sense he might… not… be capable. _Ugh._ The idea annoyed him — not only that he had interrupted a friend, but that he wasn’t even capable of sorting anything out at the moment. He _was_ the admin, after all. _The_ admin. The _only_ one on the server, with nobody else to pick up his slack— Xisuma cut his spiralling frustrated thoughts off with an audible exhale. _Frustration isn’t helping this situation, either. I’ll simply have to make this quick for Keralis, and repay him later._ His fatigue wasn’t helping either, and before he knew it Xisuma had already begun to doze off again, a heaviness settling deep in his arms and legs and head. 

X found himself jolted back to consciousness some time later when his shoulder was shaken — assumedly by the owner of the concerned, wide-eyed face staring down at him. Keralis seemed to give a relieved breath when Xisuma lethargically opened his eyes again, but his expression near immediately grew into a beaming, mischievous smile as he raised a spherical glass bottle full of shimmering crimson liquid into view and shook it a little. X stared at him, then glanced to the bottle, then glanced back to his friend’s face in confusion before Keralis’s intentions dawned on him.

“Oh, you are _not_....”

“Oh, but I am, shashwam!” Without allowing Xisuma another moment to protest, Keralis downed the strength potion in an impressive three swigs, tossed the bottle haphazardly away into his inventory, and scooped his already-indignant armoured friend up in his arms, bridal-style. He readjusted his hold on X as the man inevitably squirmed a bit with some mumbled objections, then turned on his heels to stride right on back over to the landing bay’s opening. “Ready?”

A muttered “I suppose,” was enough confirmation for Keralis to hop off the sill, allowing the wings of his elytra to snap open a second later as the cool night air rushed up past him and his now incredibly tense cargo. X ducked his head, tucking it against Keralis’s shirt and squeezing his eyes shut against a renewed wave of queasiness. The builder glanced down at him with a worried frown and stored away the rocket he had just pulled out, instead opting for a smoother ride and allowing himself to glide at a lazy angle back towards his city for the second time that night. As they drew nearer, Keralis hung a soft left and allowed his flight path to mirror the brightly lit road curving through the jungle trees below him. He spotted a scattering of items across a quartz footpath off to the side and noted to himself that he’d have to come back for what was assumedly X’s dropped inventory later, but at current it seemed his friend was in no shape to handle a sudden dive to grab it all. Following the pavement below eventually led through two futuristic towers to the edge of the jungle and a sudden clearing of trees, where a pleasant classic red farmhouse lay quiet for the night. Keralis couldn’t help but smile fondly at his own handiwork as he passed it, but the smile fell from his face as he glanced down in hopes of seeing Xisuma’s reaction to the newly-raised structure. There was a visible sweat across his friend’s forehead, even despite his helmet’s visor, and his face was screwed up as he, presumably, was fighting to endure either his gnawing stomach, nausea from the flight, or both. Keralis dipped a bit to speed up.

A minute or so later Keralis levelled out his angle yet again to come to a slow, smooth landing in front of his country house, bending his knees a tad as his boots made contact with the concrete and cautiously jogging a few steps to avoid too sudden of a stop. He barely paused for more than a moment before stepping up onto the covered porch and striding inside, keeping a brisk pace for the sake of both his friend _and_ the dwindling effects of his strength potion, and took the stairs to the second floor two at a time. The house was warmly lit and decorated in a modern sense, and even sported two nicely sized bedrooms on the top floor that Keralis was choosing between. He hesitated at the top of the landing, stuck in the classic too-difficult decision between two fundamentally identical choices, before nodding to himself and marching into the room on the left. “Shishwammyvoid? Are you still with me?” he murmured.

“Unfortunately.” Despite the tension in his gravelly voice, Xisuma cracked a strained smile up at his friend and spoke in a joking tone. It earned him a wide grin back — and if nothing else was at the moment, that smile helped X feel just a smidge better. 

“Good! Good, good, good.” Keralis repeated, voice back as bright as ever as he awkwardly tried to push the bed’s covers out of the way with a foot. “Now, you stay right here and wait for your _bee-_ utiful chef to lookie lookie at my cookie......book.” He paused, letting the terrible joke sink in, before cheerily starting up chattering again as he tucked in his friend, armour and all. “And stay awake! No slipping! Flying food all the way back to your base just will not keep it toasty!” 

“Not even a little nap?” Xisuma had long ago given up on fighting the builder, but he couldn’t help but heckle him with a teasing, tired grin from behind his visor.

“Not even a little, bittle, eensy weensy _teensy_ nap until after you’ve eaten!” He tapped X’s visor with a finger for emphasis, right over where the admin’s nose would be, before spinning around on his heels — a bit too far, actually, to the point he had to turn himself back a tad — to rush out the door. Xisuma sighed heavily the moment his friend’s form was out of sight down the stairs, and lifted his trembling hands to his helmet to pull it off again. In reality, he counted himself quite lucky to have apparently managed to smile up in Keralis’s direction successfully — his vision was so blurred and unsteady that he hardly had a clue where he was right now. Was this a new building, or one he just couldn’t recognize? It wasn’t like he had been able to keep track of what direction Keralis had flown, or even how long they had been airborne. He began to wonder if the builder had taken him further than X had thought, to some other hermit’s base. _I wouldn’t put it past him… surely he wouldn’t have let me interrupt YET another hermit, though, yes? But…_

Thankfully, Xisuma’s fingers finding the clasps that released his helmet cut off his worried thoughts for the time being. Taking the proper precautions this time around, X waited for his helmet’s internal atmosphere to slowly transition to match the density of overworld air before pushing on its bottom rim. And pushing on it some more. And some more. He grit his teeth in frustration as his lethargic limbs struggled against the tight seal between his helmet and the rest of his suit, only allowing his arms to drop limply against the mattress once dark spots began to swim in his vision. _Geez._ Despite Keralis’s warning, between the constant, persistent dizziness and the overworld air, he was very heavily debating if continuing to stay conscious was actually really, _really_ worth it here. 

His drooping eyelids were seconds from falling shut when Keralis bustled back into the room with a tray in his hands, startling the fading admin enough to snap him back to relative focus. “Shishwammyvoid! Bone apple, ah, teeth, as the kids say?” Xisuma could only vaguely make out the man’s frame, much less his joke, and raised his head just the smallest amount to squint at him. His silence and easily-missed movement apparently concerned Keralis, however, as he continued in a less cheerful tone. “Shishwam…? Are you there?” Xisuma opened his mouth to reply, but his voice had other ideas — after a considerable pause, he barely managed a reply.

“I… scarcely feel it, my friend, I will…” he weakly started, before needing to take another breath. “... admit.” There was a worried hum-whine from about where he could see Keralis standing, then the clink of a few utensils against each other as he assumedly placed the tray on some side table by the bed. A moment later X felt an arm scoop around his back and a hand planted on his chest plating in front to carefully help him sit upright against the headboard, then a little experimental tug on his helmet. He only realized then that his eyes had drifted shut when he didn’t _see_ the tug, and he opened them a sliver to raise his chin just enough to look at Keralis. There was heavy concern plastered all over his face, from what X could see now that his friend was closer, but the builder smiled at him anyways. 

“What are you doing with this still on, shashwam? That’s no way to eat.” Xisuma winced, more than hesitant to admit his failed attempt to remove it earlier, but eventually muttered a sheepish response.

“I, ah... I couldn’t... get it off.” X heaved a sigh, glancing away from Keralis for a moment out of sheer humiliation before turning his attention back. “I already released the latch. The seal is just...” He paused again to catch his breath. “... relatively airtight. It takes an effort to push it off.” Keralis gasped softly in realization.

“Ah! Why didn’t you tell me!” Xisuma could already feel his friend gently working the helmet off of his head again, and the familiar _pop_ of the air seal being broken a few seconds later. Keralis set the helmet carefully aside on the floor, taking just a moment to brush his hand through its stringy strider decorations before turning and picking up the tray again. “Ah- _ha!_ Now, just _one_ moment, shishwammy!” As X resituated himself in as reasonable of a sitting position as he could manage, Keralis held the food platter over his friend’s lap in preparation. Once the admin had stopped moving, though, Keralis dramatically (though cautiously) deposited it on his lap with a flourish. “Da-da-da-daaaaaa! Feast your eyes, Shishwammy… and mouth! Mostly mouth.” Now that it had been set down, X could finally see what was on the tray: a large, round bowl of hearty looking soup, with chunks of meat and potato in a thick amber broth.

Xisuma stared at the appetizing sight for a long moment, his eyes growing somewhat wide as his hunger suddenly grew from a pain in his stomach to a full-on ravenous force, before hastily snatching up the spoon laid neatly to the side and leaning down some to take in a few quick spoonfuls. He ignored his shaky hand and continued shovelling the warm meal into his mouth until he nearly missed it once and ended up splashing a few drops on the bed’s comforter, then paused again. “Ah— sorry, Keralis—” His friend gasped.

“Oh! You need help, how could I have not _realized?_ ” Keralis exclaimed, with his own wide-eyed look returning and a dropped jaw thrown in for good measure. He pushed his way in to grab the spoon from X — who still didn’t particularly have the strength to fight him for it — and dipped it back into the soup to fish up a piece of meat with the broth. “Open your hatch, Shishwammyvoid!”

“Wh— absolutely not—!” Keralis took his opportunity when Xisuma opened his mouth to retort and shoved the spoon right in, causing his friend to choke for a moment out of complete shock. It’s a very rare moment to see the admin quite so indignant, and Keralis might argue he would never see X quite so utterly, genuinely offended ever again in his life, but he would also claim it was all completely worth it — especially when Xisuma, after a long pause, defeatedly swallowed the bite. Keralis was already taking another spoonful when X caught his breath enough to continue. “ _Dude!_ ”

“Yes, my shishsham?” Keralis replied innocently through less-than-innocent giggles and a wide, teasing grin. He had the spoon raised again with another scoop of soup on standby, and wiggled it a little.

“You— Keralis! Drop that _right_ this instant! This is— dude— _stop doing that!_ It’s— it’s patronizing!” Xisuma spluttered, for once in his life at a relative loss for words. 

“Nyeeeeoooom! Here comes the plane!”

“ _Keralis!_ ”

————

Xisuma’s meal had turned into a lengthy battle of indignant complaints and a variety of locomotive noises, but by the time he had finished the entire bowl he noted he was feeling immensely better — and almost an equal amount exhausted. Keralis was busy carrying the dirty dish and cutlery back to the kitchen downstairs, and had cheekily dimmed the overhead light with a wink before scurrying off, and so had left the admin in quiet comfort. The muffled sound of distant crickets and a light breeze outside were the only things X could hear, and, quite frankly, it was not helping him in the slightest to get up and leave Keralis to his projects. In fact, it was really only making the bed’s covers, which were now warm from him having sat in them for a while, all the more inviting to lay down and slip fully under. _Absolutely not, Xisuma. You know the rules. We already agreed to return home once we felt up to it._ But did he _really_ feel up to it? His body still felt like lead, the fatigue having only lifted somewhat, and… Once again, he cut his own thinking off, though this time with a long yawn. He barely stifled a second yawn as Keralis’s head appeared from the stairwell, bouncing up to the second floor’s landing and peeking around the corner into the room with a wide stare before entering fully. “All settled in, cozy cozy, hm?” X waved him off with a hand, slowly swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and reaching down for his helmet in the same motion.

“Ah, no, my friend, not to worry. I’ll be out of your hair now — your help was more than enough, I assure you.” He glanced up to shoot the builder a soft smile, but raised his brows when he found Keralis standing over near him instead with a deep frown.

“Go on, it’s bedtime!” Keralis insisted, planting his hands on his hips. Xisuma chuckled, shooing him off again with his free hand without looking away from his helmet as he tried to grab it from the floor.

“ _Keralis_ , I am _fine_ , truly. You have projects to get to, and so do I, so it would be best if I were on my way—”

Keralis stopped him with a gentle yet firm grip on his shoulder. "Xisuma." The admin blinked up at him in surprise, not only at his friend dropping his consistent nickname but also at his uncharacteristically serious tone. "Please, rest." X went still, unmoving for a long few seconds before gradually pulling his hand back to pull his helmet into his lap. He hesitated there, uncertain of what to do. _I can’t… just…_ _ah, bother._ Xisuma exhaled heavily and lifted his helmet onto his head, securing it in place, but held his palm up in front of Keralis’s face when the builder started to argue. 

“No, no, my friend, rest assured; I am simply ensuring my _nap_ —” X shot Keralis a look with a raised brow with his emphasis. “—will be easy on my lungs.” He couldn’t hold the stern stare for more than a second, however, and it melted into a soft, fond smile as he stretched both arms forward to pull the man into a tight embrace. Keralis, obviously more than relieved that his friend had given in based off his reassured exhale, wrapped both spindly arms around the sitting man’s back and crouched a tad to rest his cheek on the other’s shoulder.

“Shpank you, Shishwammy. Shpank you very, _very_ much.” The builder murmured, his voice warm. The two sat there for a moment, appreciating the other’s presence — despite their proximity, they were both often busy and couldn’t always find the time to sit down and spend quality time together, especially more recently. It was a nice change of pace.

Eventually, however, Keralis leaned further forward to press Xisuma back into the bed, utilizing their extended hug, and only pulled back from him again after one more extra-tight squeeze. “Bedtime _now,_ hm, shishwam?” X looked back up at him, barely able to see over the rim of his visor when laid down, and lifted a hand in a thumbs up with an agreeable hum before lethargically kicking off his boots and armoured kneepads so he could pivot and stick his legs back under the sheets. Keralis assisted in tucking him in, reaching over the admin’s body to carefully slide his elbow padding off on one side, then the other, before finally pulling the covers up over his chestplate and tucking it neatly under the quickly tiring man’s chin. Being relieved of his armor for the night and tucked under warm blankets was making consciousness so, so much more difficult to hold onto, X noted. Just a nap. _Just a short nap_. 

By the time Keralis had made it back to the doorway and had paused to look back at his friend, the admin was already conked out, chest rising and falling softly with his slowed breaths and a peaceful expression on what could be seen of his face through his visor. The builder smiled, his eyes squinting up contentedly as he did, and he flicked the lights off before tip-toeing down the stairs. He already had planned and set out the ingredients for the upcoming morning’s breakfast in the kitchen, but for now the house was quiet and peaceful and it was time for Keralis himself to rest, too — after letting the other hermits know that their admin was fine, of course. He’d never been quite so happy to have to sleep on a couch.

It was a good night.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there, y'all! I've never written fanfiction before..... or finished a story, or written something this long... in my life... so I hope this was an enjoyable read! I was worried that perhaps it was a bit too wordy or drawn out, but ultimately I'm very proud of this and have spent probably a good 20ish hours on it over the last week and half and am so so excited to finally contribute something to the fandom! Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
